


lonely poisoned clown

by MiniNephthys



Category: End Roll (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:32:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8183914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: After being left behind, Raymond and Walter have a short argument.





	

Walter is a nervous pacer. Raymond has had the opportunity to see this in action exactly once before, on performance review day, that time when Walter had narrowly avoided getting fired for the way he treated his coworkers. He’s toned it down some since, although it’s hard to believe considering how cold he still is to everyone-

Walter is a nervous pacer, and Raymond can’t exactly blame him. This dungeon smells of beer and trauma, and while Raymond doesn’t mind the first, he hates dealing with the second for more than a minute. Russell seems to have it in spades, though, so it’s kind of inevitable, especially since he offered to help him out and keep him from dying in his own dream.

The dream won’t let either Walter or Raymond past a certain point in this dungeon. There’s nothing they can do but watch Russell leave them behind and continue with only the figments of the people he’s killed.

That would be fine - they’re all pretty strong in their own right, Raymond has never been afraid of being hit by a broom more - except that it’s a straight hallway, and so Walter and Raymond can see perfectly well when the others turn into corpses and are left behind.

It’s just Russell left, and he gives them one last glance before continuing out of sight.

Walter is a nervous pacer. Raymond doesn’t need to even ask if he’s worried, because if he wasn’t he wouldn’t even still be here. He’d have left for his tent, relying on the power of dream balloons to call him back if Russell had need of his skills.

Raymond should do the same. Yue is still packing their goods, and though she’d told him it was fine to leave that to her and go help Russell, he feels a tiny bit bad about leaving her to do all the work alone. Maybe that’s character development - he usually wouldn’t mind slacking off.

But he feels way worse about leaving Russell to fight whatever’s at the end of this dungeon by himself.

“You should go,” Walter says, abruptly dragging Raymond from his thoughts. “There’s no reason for you to stay any longer. Once whatever’s in there is dealt with, there will likely be no more enemies for you to fight, so your presence here is pointless.”

Raymond doesn’t argue likelihoods and how dreams work with Walter. Instead he says, “You’re not going anywhere either, y’know.”

“All of my materials are already packed. I can leave at any moment, so it doesn’t matter where in the dream I am,” Walter replies, and continues to pace.

“Never thought I’d see the day you’d rather be worrying about some dreamer instead of sitting snug in your research tent,” Raymond says.

That gets Walter to stop pacing. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Walter says, cold as usual. “You don’t get attached to people any more easily than I do, Raymond. Especially dreamers with a high likelihood of dying. You simply have a more cheerful demeanor, but you don’t actually care about anyone involved.”

“Y...yeah, well…” For a few seconds, Raymond doesn’t have a response for that. It’s definitely true that he isn’t all that bothered by dreamers failing the program, but that’s just how life goes, right? He still likes people, and that’s gotta be better than Walter’s… Walterness. “At least I try to be friendly! Who wants to deal with a stick in the mud like you when they’ve already got all this guilt on their plate?”

“It’s better pretending that I care about them,” Walter says. His eyes narrow further. “Have you really deluded yourself into thinking you’re doing anyone a favor? We’re not friends with the dreamers. We’re here to do our jobs, and they’re here to try not to die or be executed. Neither side cares about the other one, and that’s the way things have always been and always will be.”

“That’s not-” Raymond swallows his first retort, in favor of something with a little more thought behind it. “You watched a movie with him.”

“I hated every moment of it,” Walter says, unflinching.

Raymond presses on. “You nearly took a guy’s head off in that candy village.”

This time Walter hesitates, just for a moment. “I don’t need to care about someone to have a basic moral code. Besides which, it was good stress relief.”

“You’re pacing around here worrying about the kiddo when you could have left already,” Raymond says.

“Do you have a point to all this?” Walter asks, sharply.

“You’ve gotta care. At least a little teeny bit,” Raymond says. A pause, before he admits, “I do, and it stinks.”

“...I suspect this is what normal people feel like, when considering the possibility of harm to people they know.” Walter looks down the hallway again, and Raymond follows his gaze. No sign of Russell. “If he were seriously hurt, the dream would be breaking by now, so I can only presume that he’s winning…”

“He’s a strong kid. He’ll be just fine,” Raymond says, with a confidence he doesn’t actually feel. “And if he’s not, uh… well, we did our best?”

“Effort is meaningless to me. All I care about are results,” Walter says.

Results like Russell staying alive. That’s all that’s important right now. Things like Raymond selling his wares, or Walter getting his research samples, or even Russell passing the rehabilitation program’s tests - they can think about those some other time.

Walter goes back to pacing. Raymond wishes he had a cigarette on him. Down the hallway, corpses have changed into dolls that they pay an equal amount of notice, which is none.

Russell comes back silent and bloody. Raymond slips an arm around his shoulders as Walter mutters the words he’d learned earlier from that book of healing to clear away Russell’s bruises.

Russell doesn’t acknowledge either of them, but that’s fine. As long as he’s alive, they can go from there.


End file.
